The Archaeology of Rome and the Roman provinces

Lecture 9. Roman religion.

Archaeology of Rome and the Roman provinces- topics 2

• Water engineering • Roman religion • Geography, Trade & Commerce • The city of Rome • The Roman house • Pompeii • Roman pottery • Roman philosophy • Roman epigraphy

Roman religion

• Religion in Ancient Rome includes the ancestral ethnic religion of the city of Rome that the Romans used to define themselves as a people, as well as the religious practices of peoples brought under Roman rule, in so far as they became widely followed in Rome and Italy.

• The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success as a world power to their collective piety (pietas) in maintaining good relations with the gods.

• The Romans are known for the great number of deities they honored, a capacity that earned the mockery of early Christian polemicists.

• The presence of Greeks on the Italian peninsula from the beginning of the historical period influenced Roman culture, introducing some religious practices that became as fundamental as the cult of Apollo.

• The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks (interpretatio graeca), adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature and Roman art, as the Etruscans had.

• Etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury. The archaic religion was the foundation of the mos maiorum, "the way of the ancestors" or simply "tradition", viewed as central to Roman identity.

Roman religion / Republic

• The priesthoods of public religion were held by members of the elite classes. There was no principle analogous to "separation of church and state" in ancient Rome.

• Even the most skeptical among Rome's intellectual elite such as Cicero, who was an augur, saw religion as a source of social order.

• During the Roman Republic (509–27 BC), the same men who were elected public officials might also serve as augurs and pontiffs.

• Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives. Julius Caesar became Pontifex Maximus before he was elected consul.

• The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, thus sanctioning Roman expansionism as a matter of divine destiny.

• As a result of the Punic Wars (264–146 BC), when Rome struggled to establish itself as a dominant power, many new temples were built by magistrates in fulfillment of a vow to a deity for assuring their military success.

Roman religion / Republic

• Roman religion was practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, "I give that you might give".

• Religion depended on knowledge and the correct practice of prayer, ritual, and sacrifice, not on faith or dogma, although Latin literature preserves learned speculation on the nature of the divine and its relation to human affairs.

• As the Roman Empire expanded, migrants to the capital brought their local cults, many of which became popular among Italians. Christianity was in the end the most successful of these, and in 380 became the official state religion.

• For ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a household shrine at which prayers and libations to the family's domestic deities were offered.

• Neighborhood shrines and sacred places such as springs and groves dotted the city. • The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances. Women, slaves,

and children all participated in a range of religious activities. • Some public rituals could be conducted only by women, and women formed what is

perhaps Rome's most famous priesthood, the state-supported Vestals, who tended Rome's sacred hearth for centuries, until disbanded under Christian domination.

Roman religion

Several versions of a semi-official, structured pantheon were developed during the political, social and religious instability of the Late Republican era. Jupiter, the most powerful of all gods and "the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested", consistently personified the divine authority of Rome's highest offices, internal organization and external relations. During the archaic and early Republican eras, he shared his temple, some aspects of cult and several divine characteristics with Mars and Quirinus, who were later replaced by Juno and Minerva. A conceptual tendency toward triads may be indicated by the later agricultural or plebeian triad of Ceres, Liber and Libera, and by some of the complementary threefold deity-groupings of Imperial cult.

Augury Augury is the practice from ancient Roman religion of

interpreting omens from the observed flight of birds

(aves). When the individual, known as the augur,

interpreted these signs, it is referred to as "taking the

auspices". 'Augur' and 'auspices' are from the Latin

auspicium and auspex, literally "one who looks at birds."

Depending upon the birds, the auspices from the gods

could be favorable or unfavorable (auspicious or

inauspicious).

ex caelo [from the sky]

This auspice involved the observation of thunder and lightning and

was often seen as the most important auspice. Whenever an augur

reported that Jupiter had sent down thunder and lightning, no comitia

(a gathering deemed to represent the entire Roman population) could

be held.

ex avibus [from birds]

Though auspices were typically bird signs, not all birds in the sky were

seen as symbols of the will of the Gods. There were two classes of

birds: Oscines, who gave auspices via their singing; and, who gave

auspices via how they flew.

The Oscines included ravens, crows, owls and hens, each offering

either a favorable omen (auspicium ratum) or an unfavorable

depending on which side of the Augur's designated area they

appeared on.

Roman religion

• The Romans are known for the great number of deities they honored.

• The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks (interpretatio graeca), adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature and Roman art.

•

VirtVs

•helmeted •right breast exposed

•standing left •Victory symbol in right

hand •left hand resting on shield

•spear against left arm

Represents: Courage, Virtue

HONOS

• Holding Cornacopia and olive branch

Represents:

chivalry, honor, military justice

PVdicitia

• Veiled • Right hand on breast • Scepter in left hand

Represents:

Virtue, Chastity

JanVs

• Double head • Could see past and future • Doorways and gateways

• Reversed Spear in one hand • Thunderbolt in other

• “Janitor”

Represents: Time/Ages

JUPITER - King of the Gods Jupiter was king of the Gods. His

weapon was the Thunderbolt

(thunder and lightning). All other

gods were terrified of him,

although he was a little scared of

his wife Juno! Jupiter, Neptune

and Pluto were the three sons of

Saturn. They divided up the world

between themselves. Jupiter took

the air, Neptune had the sea and

Pluto ruled under the earth, the

home of the Dead

Jupiter means Father Jove (Father in Latin is "pater"). There

was a big temple in Rome dedicated to Jupiter - Optimus

Maximus (which means Jupiter Best and Greatest). The

Romans thought that Jupiter guarded their city and looked after

them.

http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/roman/jupiter.htm

CERES

Ceres was the ancient Latin

goddess of vegetation, whose

worship merged completely with that

of the Greek goddess Demeter

Vatican Museums, Vatican City

http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/ceres.html

JUNO

Juno was the majestic queen of

the heaven and wife of Jupiter

Vatican Museums, Vatican City

http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/juno.html

MERCURY

• Mercury (Mercurius)

protected merchants

and travelers. He was

portrayed as the

Greek Hermes, the

messenger of the

gods.

Vatican Museums, Vatican City

http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/mercury.html

Venus, a very

ancient Latin

deity who

protected

vegetation and

gardens, was

merged in the

Roman faith with

the Greek

goddess

Aphrodite,

becoming the

goddess of love

and beauty.

Capitoline Museums, Rome

http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/venus.html

DIANA

Diana, the

virgin

huntress,

Goddess of

light, a moon

Goddess and

also

Goddess to

unity of

peoples Capitoline Museums, Rome

http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/diana.html

VESTA Vesta was the

Roman version

of the Greek

goddess

Hestia, and

guarded the

hearth and

home. She

therefore never

moved from

Mount

Olympus. Also

she was

bestowed with

perpetual

virginity, which

is why her

priestesses

were to be

virgins, too, -

the famous

Vestal Virgins.

http://www.roman-

empire.net/religion/vesta.html

BACCHUS

Bacchus is the

Roman version

of the Greek

god Dionysos.

He generally

represented as

an ever-young

god of wine and

jolity, but at

times also of

deep

thoughtfulness.

Vatican Museums, Vatican City

http://www.roman-

empire.net/religion/bacchus.html

Roman religion • As the Romans extended their dominance throughout the Mediterranean

world, their policy in general was to absorb the deities and cults of other peoples rather than try to eradicate them, since they believed that preserving tradition promoted social stability.

• One way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion.

• Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the side-by-side worship of local and Roman deities, including dedications made by Romans to local gods.

• By the height of the Empire, numerous international deities were cultivated at Rome and had been carried to even the most remote provinces, among them Cybele, Isis, Epona, and gods of solar monism such as Mithras and Sol Invictus, found as far north as Roman Britain.

• Because Romans had never been obligated to cultivate one god or one cult only, religious tolerance was not an issue in the sense that it is for competing monotheistic systems

Founding myths

• The Roman mythological tradition is particularly rich in historical myths, or legends, concerning the foundation and rise of the city.

• Rome had a semi-divine ancestor in the Trojan refugee Aeneas, son of Venus, who was said to have established the nucleus of Roman religion when he brought the Palladium, Lares and Penates from Troy to Italy.

• These objects were believed in historical times to remain in the keeping of the Vestals, Rome's female priesthood.

• Aeneas had been given refuge by King Evander, a Greek exile from Arcadia, to whom were attributed other religious foundations

• he established the Ara Maxima, "Greatest Altar," to Hercules at the site that would become the Forum Boarium, and he was the first to celebrate the Lupercalia, an archaic festival in February that was celebrated as late as the 5th century of the Christian era

Legendary Rome • Aeneas and Trojan Refugees settle in Italy

(Vergil’s Aeneid; fictional)

• Romulus founds Rome 753 BCE

– legend

– Romulus probably named for Rome

– “Rome” may come from a word for “river”

• Seven Kings

• Tarquinius Superbus deposed

• Republic founded 509 BCE

Founding of Rome –

The City (Kingdom) of Rome

• Romulus and Remus – Latin princess was Vestal virgin

– Raped by Mars, bore twin boys

– Ordered killed by non-Latin king

– Suckled by a wolf

– Grew and founded a city (753BC)

– Romulus killed Remus

• Historic Evidence – The Etruscans conquered the Romans (non-

Latin king)

– Romans eventually overthrew Etruscans and established kingdom

– Ruins of home of king (Romulus?) date from 8th Century BC

Rituals

• Roman rituals and festivals are often longer than a single day and could last up to a week.

• Through out the year Romans dedicated days to honor each god. During festivals slaves were excused from laws and restrictions

Holidays

• Roman calendars show roughly forty annual religious festivals. Some lasted several days, others a single day or less: sacred days (dies fasti) outnumbered "non-sacred" days (dies nefasti).

• A comparison of surviving Roman religious calendars suggests that official festivals were organized according to broad seasonal groups that allowed for different local traditions. Some of the most ancient and popular festivals incorporated ludi ("games," such as chariot races and theatrical performances), with examples including those held at Palestrina in honour of Fortuna Primigenia during Compitalia, and the Ludi Romani in honour of Liber.

Rituals - Lupercalia (February 15)

• Lupericalia has roots to pre-Roman traditions

• In Rome the ritual was used to purify the people from curses, bad luck, and infertility

• The festival begins with the sacrifice of goats and dogs by two chosen young men.

• After the sacrifice, the men wipe the blood on their forehead(to symbolize human sacrifice) then wipe themselves clean with wool dipped in milk.

• The young men dressed themself in the skin of the sacrificed goat and proceeded to run around the city walls striking woman with the thong wolf skin

• A strike was said to prevent infertility in women

The objective was to secure the fruitfulnes of the

land, the increase of the flock and the prosperity of

the whole people

Saturnalia

• December 17

• Like the Christian

Christmas it was a

serious day in that

it honored saturn

• However also like

Christmas, it was

filled with

celebration that

lasted for a week!

• February 13-21: Romans remember their dead

• On the 21 of February: Romans visited cemeteries, placed flowers, milk, and wine on graves

• On the 22 of February: Family Reunions where offerings were made to household deities

Rituals: Parentalia

Roman religion

The impressive, costly, and centralised rites to the deities of the Roman state were outnumbered in everyday life by commonplace religious observances pertaining to an individual's domestic and personal deities, the patron divinities of Rome's various neighborhoods and communities, and the often idiosyncratic blends of official, unofficial, local and personal cults that characterised lawful Roman religion. In this spirit, a provincial Roman citizen who made the long journey from Bordeaux to Italy to consult the Sibyl at Tibur did not neglect his devotion to his own goddess from home:

I wander, never ceasing to pass through the whole world, but I am first and foremost a faithful worshiper of Onuava. I am at the ends of the earth, but the distance cannot tempt me to make my vows to another goddess. Love of the truth brought me to Tibur, but Onuava’s favorable powers came with me. Thus, divine mother, far from my home-land, exiled in Italy, I address my vows and prayers to you no less.

Domestic and private cult

• The mos maiorum established the dynastic authority and obligations of the citizen-paterfamilias ("the father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate"). He had priestly duties to his lares, domestic penates, ancestral Genius and any other deities with whom he or his family held an interdependent relationship.

• Genius was the essential spirit and generative power – depicted as a serpent or as a perennial youth, often winged – within an individual and their clan (gens (pl. gentes).

• A pater familias was the senior priest of his household. He offered daily cult to his lares and penates, and to his di parentes/divi parentes at his domestic shrines and in the fires of the household hearth.

• His wife (mater familias) was responsible for the household's cult to Vesta. In Vergil's Aeneid, Aeneas brought the Trojan cult of the lares and penates from Troy, along with the Palladium which was later installed in the temple of Vesta

The Lararivm

• sacred place of the home where offerings

and prayers are made to the Gods.

• A private station to pray

to the “Lar”

• Lar is Roman household deity who protected the

land that the family lived upon

Fire

• Every Roman house had a sacred fire.

• It was believed that the lit fire protected the

family and if the fire went out, terrible things

could happen to them.

• Fire had to stay pure; no bad thing could be

done in the presence of the sacred fire.

• Believed it to have the power to bring them

good health as well as protection.

• In return, the Romans made offerings of

flowers, wine, victims, and fruit.

Birth (dies lustricus day of purification)

• Naming of baby is far more important than birth of baby.

• Babies were given 3 names:

• Praenomen: First/Personal name

• Nomen: Clan of Child’s family

• Cognomen: Family Branch

• Ex: Marcus Tullius Cicero

Sacerdos VEstalis

• virgin holy female priests of Vesta, the goddess of

the hearth.

• The objects of the Virgins were essentially the

hearth fire and pure water drawn into a clay vase.

• Chosen between 6 and 10

years of age.

The Vestals • The Vestals were a public priesthood of six women devoted to the

cultivation of Vesta, goddess of the hearth of the Roman state and its vital flame.

• A girl chosen to be a Vestal achieved unique religious distinction, public status and privileges, and could exercise considerable political influence. Upon entering her office, a Vestal was emancipated from her father's authority.

• Unlike male priests, Vestals were freed of the traditional obligations of marrying and producing children, and were required to take a vow of chastity that was strictly enforced

• The Vestals embody the profound connection between domestic cult and the religious life of the community. Any householder could rekindle their own household fire from Vesta's flame. The Vestals cared for the Lares and Penates of the state that were the equivalent of those enshrined in each home.

• Besides their own festival of Vestalia, they participated directly in the rites of Parilia, Parentalia and Fordicidia.

Roman religion

• Roman beliefs about an afterlife varied, and are known mostly for the educated elite who expressed their views in terms of their chosen philosophy. The traditional care of the dead, however, and the perpetuation after death of their status in life were part of the most archaic practices of Roman religion.

• Ancient votive deposits to the noble dead of Latium and Rome suggest elaborate and costly funeral offerings and banquets in the company of the deceased, an expectation of afterlife and their association with the gods. As Roman society developed, its Republican nobility tended to invest less in spectacular funerals and extravagant housing for their dead, and more on monumental endowments to the community, such as the donation of a temple or public building whose donor was commemorated by his statue and inscribed name

• A standard Roman funerary inscription is Dis Manibus (to the Manes-gods). Regional variations include its Greek equivalent, theoîs katachthoníois

Religion and the military

• Military success was achieved through a combination of personal and collective virtus (roughly, "manly virtue") and the divine will: lack of virtus, civic or private negligence in religio and the growth of superstitio provoked divine wrath and led to military disaster. Military success was the touchstone of a special relationship with the gods, and to Jupiter Capitolinus in particular; triumphal generals were dressed as Jupiter, and laid their victor's laurels at his feet.

• Roman commanders offered vows to be fulfilled after success in battle or siege; and further vows to expiate their failures.

• Roman camps followed a standard pattern for defense and religious ritual; in effect they were Rome in miniature.

• The commander's headquarters stood at the centre; he took the auspices on a dais in front. A small building behind housed the legionary standards, the divine images used in religious rites and in the Imperial era, the image of the ruling emperor.

• The most important camp-offering appears to have been the suovetaurilia performed before a major, set battle. A ram, a boar and a bull were ritually garlanded, led around the outer perimeter of the camp (a lustratio exercitus) and in through a gate, then sacrificed: Trajan's column shows three such events from his Dacian wars. The perimeter procession and sacrifice suggest the entire camp as a divine templum; all within are purified and protected.[

Principia

The central region of the Via Principalis with the buildings for the command staff was called the Principia (plural of principium). It was actually a square, as across this at right angles to the Via Principalis was the Via Praetoria, so called because the praetorium interrupted it. The Via Principalis and the Via Praetoria offered another division of the camp into four quarters.

Valetudinarium

Augustus and the revival of Roman religion

The revival of the old religion

• Festivals and rituals had been ignored

• Temples damaged, destroyed or ruined

• Priesthoods left vacant

The revival of the old religion

• According to Augustus’ records, he: – Rebuilt 82 temples in 28BC alone

– Filled vacant priesthoods

– Promoted the worship of 2 old gods in a new role • Mars honoured as father of Rome’s founder, Romulus, as god

of war, and Mars the Avenger (he had helped Augustus avenge two wrongs – murder of Caesar and the slaughter of Roman legions at Carrhae)

• Apollo honoured for helping Augustus win at Actium. A large temple was built for him and he was honoured as the protector of Rome. Also promoted as a god of arts and civilisation, and a symbol of Augustus’ success

The Ara Pacis

• Altar of Peace – 13BC

• Divinities depicted on walls

• Aeneas, father of the Roman race, depicted sacrificing to the gods

• Augustus’ family is depicted, together with priests, magistrates and senators, making a procession to the altar to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving

The Ara Pacis

The Ara Pacis

The creation of the cult of the emperor

• Worship of the ruler as a god

• Based on the concept of power – An all-powerful ruler could drastically change

someone’s life for better or worse

– An all-powerful ruler could claim descent from the gods

– Therefore, they could claim respect beyond that given to other men while alive, and could be worshipped as a god after his death

• Aeneas, Romulus, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar

The creation of the cult of the emperor

• Origins of practice lie in traditional Roman practice and Rome’s contact with the Mediterranean world during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC – Cult of dead ancestors honoured at Parentalia and

Feralia

– Ancestors memorialised in the family home – eg masks made and worn at funerals by relatives who impersonated dead ancestors

– In the Roman triumph, the victorious general impersonated the god Jupiter for one day

Roman religion / Empire

• By the height of the Empire, numerous international deities were cultivated at Rome and had been carried to even the most remote provinces, among them Cybele, Isis, Epona, and gods of solar monism such as Mithras and Sol Invictus, found as far north as Roman Britain.

• Foreign religions attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in the Empire. Imported mystery religions, which offered initiates salvation in the afterlife, were a matter of personal choice for an individual, practiced in addition to carrying on one's family rites and participating in public religion.

• The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of "magic", conspiratorial (coniuratio), or subversive activity. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, as with the senate's efforts to restrict the Bacchanals in 186 BC.

Roman religion / Empire

• Because Romans had never been obligated to cultivate one god or one cult only, religious tolerance was not an issue in the sense that it is for competing monotheistic systems. The monotheistic rigor of Judaism posed difficulties for Roman policy that led at times to compromise and the granting of special exemptions, but sometimes to intractable conflict. For example, religious disputes helped cause the First Jewish–Roman War and the Bar Kokhba revolt.

• In the wake of the Republic's collapse, state religion had adapted to support the new regime of the emperors. Augustus, the first Roman emperor, justified the novelty of one-man rule with a vast program of religious revivalism and reform.

• Public vows formerly made for the security of the republic now were directed at the well-being of the emperor. So-called "emperor worship" expanded on a grand scale the traditional Roman veneration of the ancestral dead and of the Genius, the divine tutelary of every individual.

• The Imperial cult became one of the major ways in which Rome advertised its presence in the provinces and cultivated shared cultural identity and loyalty throughout the Empire. Rejection of the state religion was treason.

MITHRAS

Mithra, known as

Mithras to the

Romans, was

originally a Persian

god of the sun. At the

beginning of time

Mithras had sacrificed

the mythical great bull

from the body of

which flowed the

blood which gave life

to earth.

With the Romans

Mithras became the

god of kings, justice

and contracts. He was

a deity particularly

favored by soldiers,

who were bound in

loyalty to their rulers

and is often described

as the soldier god.

Vatican Museums, Vatican City

http://www.roman-empire.net/religion/mithras.html

Mithraism

• Mithras was a Persian God from the Zoroastrian pantheon – Zoroastrianism is a Persian religion based on the balance of good and evil – Mithras was a helper and assistant to the power of good against the power

of evil • Mithras was born from a rock

– His main service in the fight against evil was the slay of a bull created by the evil lord.

– He killed the bull in a cave, and from its blood sprang all life

Mithras in Rome

• Mithraism came to Rome in the first century BCE and gained a following from:

– soldiers, public servants and merchants.

• It peaked in the third century before being supressed along with every other non-christian religion.

• Little is known about Mithraism and it is considered a Mystery religion in which the meaning of its iconography and rituals was a secrete known only to initates

Mithraism - What we know

– Member had to go through a seven step initiation – Ceremonies and rituals were held in caves similar to the one where Mithras

was described killing the bull – Mithraism is known almost entirely from physical artifacts and dedicatory

inscriptions. – It is also mentioned in works by: Pultarch, Porphyry and Origen

Mithraeum

• Small rooms made to resemble caves

• Had an altar or a fresco with an image of Mithras killing a bull

• They were usually lined with dining couches, so it is assumed that there were often communal meals

The Mithraeum found under St. Clement’s

Birth of Mithras

reclining couches Altar of Mithras

looks like a cave

Mithras killing a bull

a typical Mithraic altar Mithras sacrificing the bull

a snake and a dog drinking the bull’s blood

a scorpion biting the bull’s privates

Sol

Luna

wheat sprouting out of

the bull’s tail

Cautes

Cautopates

raven

Phrygian cap

Cave Typically Used for Ceremonies

Mithras Slitting the Bull

The Mithraeum at Novae

The Mithraeum at Novae

a Mithraic altar located in the Vatican

Mithraic Hierarchy

• 1. Corax

• 2. Nymphus

• 3. Miles

• 4. Leo

• 5. Perses

• 6. Heliodromus

• 7. Pater

Acheloos

The historical cult of the Etruscan man-faced bull has its early origins in prehistoric

Levantine influences largely mediated by Cypriot and Sardinian vectors, before the

arrival of Greek settlers in Southern Italy. Only later are the bull and bull-

man water cults conflated with the Greek myth of Acheloios, and it is from the

contact between Etruscan and Greek traditions that the imagery and mythology

of Acheloios as a man-faced bull was finally formalized.

N. Molinari, N. Sisci, Potamikon: Sinews of Acheloios. A Comprehensive Catalog

of the Bronze Coinage of the Man-Faced Bull, with Essays on Origin and Identity,

Oxford 2016, 42

Model świątyni rzymskiej

Typy świątyń rzymskich

Świątynia Jowisza na Kapitolu

Plan świątyni Jowisza

Panteon

Panteon

Panteon

Panteon portyk wejściowy

Panteon

Panteon

Panteon „oculus”

Panteon - kasetony

Panteon – gzyms, łuki odciążające

Panteon

Świątynia Wenus i Romy - Hadrian

Świątynia Wenus i Romy po przebudowie - Dioklecjan

Podium świątyni Wenus i Romy

Peristaza świątyni Wenus i Romy

Kasetony świątyni Wenus i Romy po

przebudowie